The Great Contrasts...

This is the lighthouse at Peggy's Cove.
While my wife took the picture towards the end of our Maritime trip a few weeks ago, I remember once visiting here in the summer of 1997. Unlike this time around, I was neither a parent nor was married. I was travelling solo, and found myself frequently alone with my thoughts. I called it solitude, and it was quite appropriate for me then.

Just short of the lighthouse, there are a number of warning signs to avoid getting too close to the water, including the darker coloured rocks. The newer signs couch their language a bit better, but my favorite is a much older sign bolted to one of the rocks along the path. While I may not get the phrasing quite right, it says something to the effect of this:

Caution, Dangerous Terrain,
Tourists who have been too
curious have paid
for it with their lives."

Certainly the day I visited saw some massive ocean swells smashing into the rocks. I think I got too close myself, because one of the local staff told me to get back off from where I was. I was at least twenty feet from the water at this point. Yet it occurred to me that the ocean is so powerful at this point, and I was nothing more than a twig to be cast in a dragged about. Next to these ocean swells I felt so insignificant...

...yet at the same time I felt an affirmation that somehow I mattered. All of us matter to God, no matter how small or insignificant we might feel.

Visiting Peggy's Cove 9 years later reminded me of that personal experience. I'm not sure if I can ever replicate it, but it's an encouraging reminder...

Edit: I preached on this back in January. Interesting to see how these stories keep resurfacing.